There are a couple of these that are dodgy. For instance Q1, Q3 and Q13 had more than one name for the right answer.  Then, I opened up the business section of a certain Sunday newspaper to see a front page story declaring that the film they announced as Q8′s answer had been beaten into second place in this summer’s cinema takings (in Ireland anyway) by The Hangover.  Bad luck to the organisers if this fact changed in the four days following the quiz. Otherwise they must have been wrong.

As usual, we play the ball as it lies and we’ll be back there again at the start of next month for the 2008 quiz.

Regarding the answers below: If you got them all right, here’s a bit of advice: send off your application to become a question writer for Trivial Pursuit: Game of the Year Edition right away.

Answers:

1. The Japanese Aerospace Agency launched the world’s first Greenhouse Gases observing satellite in January. What is its name? A> Ibuki
2. On what date did gunmen attack a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan? A> March 3
3. Greenland made major steps towards independence from Denmark this year.  What is its new official language called? Greenlandic
4. On what date did actress Farrah Fawcett die? June 25
5. Which film won the “Worst Picture” category at the 29th Golden Raspberry awards in February? A> The Love Guru
6. Which actress founded Flower Films, the company behind the movie He’s Just Not That Into You? A> Drew Barrymore
7. Who directed the 2009 version of Friday the 13th? A> Marcus Nispel
8. Which film is the highest grossing of 2009 so far, and set a record for midnight release? A> Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
9. Which horse won the 2009 Dubai World Cup? A> Well Armed
10. Who came second in this year’s Tour de France? A> Andy Schleck
11. On which date did famous boxing commentator Reg Gutteridge die? A> January 24
12. Arsenal player Eduardo was banned for two games by UEFA this week. The first of those two games will be against Standard Liege.  Who will Arsenal’s opponents be in the second? A> Olympiacos
13. Who said the following quote: “… they showed us the boat inside and out, how they work and what they do, we took a ride around the land and it was a loooot of fun!”? A> Dayana Mendoza (Miss Venezuela), on visiting Guantanamo Bay
14. How long was the solar eclipse of July 22nd, the longest seen from Earth this century? 6 minutes, 39 seconds

Pictures:

1. Calista Flockhart
2. Debra Messing
3. Jennifer Garner
4. Sharon Stone
5. Madonna
6. Britney Spears
7. Denzel Washington
8. Jodie Marsh
9. Beyoncé Knowles
10. Jennifer Lopez

It’s probably the cruelest picture round I’ve ever seen!

Up above, I would like to point out that we were very close on two of them.  Q8 was a case of the dreaded “rethink” as we actually had HP & THBP down on our answer sheet before rubbing it out and going with Transformers 2. What were we thinking!?  And with Q10, we did have the surname correct – only trouble is we went with the wrong brother.

By which I mean: ever had the feeling you can’t swim properly because the water is too shallow?

Well that’s the feeling I had at last Wednesday night’s quiz in The Dáil Bar, Galway.

This is the first of The Dáil Bar’s three themed quizzes, which will take place on the first Wednesday night of each month.  The first night’s theme was easy enough to understand: 2009.

However, the selection of questions almost entirely from the 2009 Wikipedia page (as we discovered the next day) led to a huge range of question difficulty, encompassing the easy (“Which country took over the presidency of the European Union on January 1st?”) to the downright ridiculous (“On which date did famous boxing commentator Reg Gutteridge die?”).

I know every question is easy to those who know the answer but, come on, even those people to whom Reg Gutteridge is “famous” almost certainly don’t know which date he heard the bell for the final time.  “Which famous boxing commentator died on blah-blah-blah?” would have been a nicer way to do it.   To be honest, my team still wouldn’t have known the answer but I think that would be a more-balanced way of using this piece of information as the basis of a question.

We also had the unusual experience of being a table of film fans (two serious, one less so and the fourth who’s just submitted a thesis for a Masters in Film Studies!) and yet, between us, we had seen ONE of the films used in the Movies round. How so? Well, let’s just say they are all (bar the one) hanging around the lower end of the Rotten Tomatoes freshness scale… Mind you, that was the whole point, in the case of one of the questions

I’ll touch briefly on the music round which, unfortunately, I can’t include in the questions below. Sufficed to say, I must now be getting old, such was the bewildered look that I caught myself giving as most of the electropop tunes were played! Oh dear.

We struggled home in fourth place, 1 pt behind third (and a cash prize, dang it!) but a whopping 9 pts behind The Hairy Nipples, the night’s winners, who certainly know their 2009.

Here are the questions that defeated us:

1. The Japanese Aerospace Agency launched the world’s first Greenhouse Gases observing satellite in January. What is its name?
2. On what date did gunmen attack a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan?
3. Greenland made major steps towards independence from Denmark this year.  What is its new official language called?
4. On what date did actress Farrah Fawcett die?
5. Which film won the “Worst Picture” category at the 29th Golden Raspberry awards in February?
6. Which actress founded Flower Films, the company behind the movie He’s Just Not That Into You?
7. Who directed the 2009 version of Friday the 13th?
8. Which film is the highest grossing of 2009 so far, and set a record for midnight release?
9. Which horse won the 2009 Dubai World Cup?
10. Who came second in this year’s Tour de France?
11. On which date did famous boxing commentator Reg Gutteridge die?
12. Arsenal player Eduardo was banned for two games by UEFA this week. The first of those two games will be against Standard Liege.  Who will Arsenal’s opponents be in the second?
13. Who said the following quote: “… they showed us the boat inside and out, how they work and what they do, we took a ride around the land and it was a loooot of fun!”?
14. How long was the solar eclipse of July 22nd, the longest seen from Earth this century?

And where would we be without the Picture Round, in glorious black-and-white?

Answers coming up later. You have my best wishes!